Thursday, March 29, 2012

In a 4-3 decision, the State Supreme Court dismissed the sexual assault convictions of former Elkins teacher David Paschal, 38, and said a state law that criminalizes sexual contact between teachers and students who are over 18 years old is unconstitutional. "Regardless of how we feel about Paschal’s conduct, which could correctly be referred to as reprehensible, we cannot abandon our duty to uphold the rule of law when a case presents distasteful facts," Chief Justice Jim Hannah wrote in the majority opinion.

Paschal was convicted of four counts of second-degree sexual assault and one count of bribing a witness at a jury trial last year. He was sentenced serve 30 years in prison. One of Paschal's former students testified at that trial that she engaged in a months-long consensual sexual relationship with Paschal when she was 18 and still a student at Elkins.

The State misapprehends the issue when it asserts that there is no fundamental right for a public high school teacher to have sex with an eighteen-year-old high school student enrolled in that school. The issue is whether the statute, as applied in this case, infringes on Paschal’s fundamental right to engage in private, consensual, noncommercial acts of sexual intimacy with an adult. We hold that it does.

Speaking of...

Last month, the Arkansas Bar Association circulated the final draft of a proposed constitutional amendment to chose members of the Arkansas Supreme Court by appointment rather than election. Now, it's hosting public forums to discuss the proposal. /more/

A statewide coalition of organizations working for criminal justice reform is asking the Arkansas Supreme Court to improve the pre-trial detention and release process in the state, which it says unjustly penalizes individuals for being poor or mentally ill. /more/

Lawyers in a nursing home class action have not given up their effort to force Supreme Court Justice Rhonda Wood not to participate in the case. /more/

The Arkansas Supreme Court today rejected most of a union's argument that it should not be prohibited from demonstrating against Walmart at its stores and nearby shopping areas. But it said an order against all "non-shopping activity" was overly broad. /more/

Jack Wagoner, a Little Rock lawyer, has filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging violations of constitutional due process in insufficient notice to voters about two medical marijuana proposals that appear on Arkansas election ballots. /more/

More by Leslie Newell Peacock

Call it #givingThursdayto Central High: The art faculty and students at Central High School are selling their work TONIGHT to raise money to buy art supplies for the school. The prices range from $1 up! There will also be a silent auction of work by Central High instructors Jason McCann, Amanda Heinbockel, Leron McAdoo, Loni Rainey, Stacey Mitchell, Don Enderson, Karen Terry and Rex DeLoney, and LRCH alumni Laura Raborn, Jennifer Perren, Lizzie Gillum and others.

Prepare for a busy 2nd Friday Art Night tomorrow night, where folks will be celebrating Matt McLeod Fine Art's first anniversary, listening to the Arkansas Chamber Singers at the Old State House Museum, prefacing a performance by Richard Leo Johnson with an exhibition of his photographs at the Butler Center Galleries, hearing a talk and demonstration by Robert Bean about his creative process at Arkansas Capital Corp., and slinging back eggnog while seeing new works by Rex Deloney at the Historic Arkansas Museum. Read more about Johnson, the Chamber Singers and 2nd Friday Art Night here.

Tomas Bohm, owner of Czech and German eateries The Pantry in West Little Rock and The Pantry Crest in Hillcrest, will take over the space now occupied by Hillcrest Artisan Meats at 2807 Kavanaugh Blvd. next year. Brandon Brown and his wife, Tara Protiva-Brown, will continue to operate H.A.M. until the end of the year; Bohm hopes to reopen under a new name sometime in February.

Over to you.

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